Interesting Facts - Page 49

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241

It is possible to tell if a piece of steel was made before the 1940s. This is because there is a tiny amount of background radiation in the air from the testing of atomic bombs. Any steel made after 1945 has this signature inside it.

242

If you don't have any kids, you will break an unbroken line of successful reproduction that goes back billions of years. No pressure.

243

More than 6 times as many Soviet soldiers died in WWII as American soldiers that died in all wars combined.

244

Sharks have existed on this planet longer than trees have.

245

On a rotary phone, some numbers were much faster to dial than others. So when the U.S. created area codes in the 1940s, it gave the major cities "quicker" area codes. This is why New York City is 212, Chicago is 312, and Los Angeles is 213.

31 Comments

+25

Level 67

Apr 2, 2019

Sharks have existed on THIS planet longer than trees. But if you’re talking about extra-terrestrial trees that’s a whole other story!

+35

Level 59

Sep 18, 2020

What about extraterrestrial sharks?

Level 70

Oct 14, 2022

second place for best comment

Level 60

Nov 29, 2023

Space sharks are older than space trees. That's just science.

Level 26

Jan 30, 2025

Clearly

Level 80

Nov 23, 2019

There's a street in Cleveland that used to cross a river. I say used to because it was the only building casualty Cleveland suffered during WWII. The steel mills around it were enriching steel with uranium and that eventually weakened the bridge enough that the bridge's failure was imminent and the city decided to tear it down. The two neighborhoods on each side of the river are about twenty yards apart but take fifteen minutes to get from one to the other.

Level 70

Nov 7, 2021

Please leave source of this account:

Level 77

May 14, 2020

Nr. 242 also applies when you kill a fly or step on an ant. It is a tragedy.

Level 70

Aug 4, 2021

Like Macbeth

+17

Level 63

May 24, 2020

>If you don't have kids you will break an unbroken line of successful reproduction that goes back billions of years.

No Pressure If You've got a sibling , right?

+11

Level 65

Jun 12, 2020

While I enjoy many of your facts, No. 242 is not only unenlightening, but given that some people are unable to have children, and that this can be a source of great pain, it reads as unnecessarily cruel. Please rethink it.

Level 47

Dec 18, 2021

r/woosh

Level 60

Jun 30, 2023

oh wah, go cry about it

Level 73

Sep 29, 2025

This comment I agree with - and five years on from this original comment, it's actually become a worse fact. Not only does it read as belittling people who are infertile or sterile and thus cannot have kids, it also reads as offensive to those who are asexual and do not want to have sex, or offensive to people that simply do not want to have kids in general. The fact as a whole kind of reads as if our only purpose in life is to procreate and continue our genetic lineage, and that we are some sort of failure for not doing so. Like...come on. That's...really, really dumb. Feels like this fact should be changed, cause it's not really even a fact - it's just a direct judgment of people that don't wish to have children.

Level 32

Jan 14, 2026

It’s not judgement

It’s just a fact and a joke

Level 64

Apr 23, 2026

I got cancer before my son could have a 'brudda'. He said if the kid isn't ok, he'll care for him.

Later, having become an intensely knowledgeable rail fanner, he met a kid from a northern state who had the Ben Carson procedure. Bifurcation of the brain to manage seizures. For awhile, he struggled to coordinate his right and left sides. His mother passed young from cancer, but a single Aunt stepped up.

All of us raise these kids together. The various nuns (teaching, building, traveling) who made the Mayo Clinic possible, Mr Curtis who kept the beautiful city clocks functional and let us play on his land.

Without single great aunts and a bereft great uncle, my paternal family would have been homeless after a blinding. And our families back in the provinces would have no remittances to pull them through the lean times, parental deaths, and drownings at sea.

Single people are not really single.

And if you're lucky, you can have a brudda even as an only child

🩵🐕

Level 59

Jun 13, 2020

#242 I don't believe. Firstly, if your siblings have kids, it doesn't break. If your cousins have kids, it doesn't break. If your cousins' cousins have kids, it doesn't break. This goes on for many times.

+10

Level 88

Oct 2, 2020

The statement refers only to the line that led directly to you, so the only people who can claim the same lineage are your full-blood siblings. If you include first cousins, you have to go back to your grandparents' generation; more distant cousins require going back even further.

Level 65

Feb 23, 2023

So what your saying is you inky break the line going as dar back as your nearest ancestor with children. If you have siblings you are only breaking a one person line. If you have no siblings or 1st cousins but have 2nd cousins you break only a 3 person line.

The fact kinda doesn’t mean anything.

Level 88

Oct 21, 2025

I guess you could say that - but I prefer to think of it stating the obvious, rather than stating something meaningless.

Level 74

Jan 5, 2021

guys 242 is a joke your not breaking lines of reproduction unless you are the only child in the world

Level 55

Feb 26, 2021

I agree

Level 34

Feb 27, 2021

Oh, the pressure's on! Thankfully, I am in a family of 6.

Level 80

Jul 22, 2021

245 - this is also why Detroit was given 313, back when it was actually considered an important city

Level 60

Nov 29, 2023

It's still an important city, thank you very much.

Level 51

Dec 11, 2021

Fun fact: you only have about 38 generations iny our family tree due to the fact that you need to double the amount of people in your family tree because each person has 2 parents.

Level 70

May 7, 2022

It gets complicated e.g. My father was one of eleven children, my mother was one of eleven children, so twenty two children only had four parents in total.

Level 63

Sep 1, 2022

I feel like I’m missing the part where having two parents leads to only having 38 generations in your family.

Level 26

Jan 30, 2025

Google

Level 64

Mar 16, 2024

242- ehhh i have a brother he'll deal with it

Level 69

Aug 9, 2024

Compare the thinking and customer service used in the selection of the numbers for the busier area codes to the poor service offered by phone companies these days. Unhelpful call in lines. Mandatory plans. Long lines to get service. Forcing people to dial the entire area code for local calls instead of reprogramming the system.